Description
This web activity consisted of 15 environmental questionnaire items, followed by the Author Recognition Test (which was effectively item number 16).
The 15 questionnaire items related to the twin's current experience of reading and mathematics, both at home and at school. For each item, the twin was asked to click on the best response from a set of options presented on screen. The questions and responses are tabulated in full near the bottom of this page.
The 16th item, the Author Recognition Test, is described in detail below.
Author Recognition Test Rules
Note that there are no branching or discontinue rules for this simple test. The test appears on screen in a single web page, as a rectangular list of 42 names as shown here:
21 of them are genuine names of popular authors of children's books. The other 21 are dummy names. The author names are numbered 1-42, from left to right and then from top to bottom in the list above. The numbering is made more explicit in the table of authors at the bottom of this page. Each twin was asked to identify the genuine authors by clicking on the names, then to click on an "OK" button to confirm the final choice. The twins were allowed to click on as many or as few author names as they wished, from 0 to 42.
In the raw item responses (variables ja01a1/2 to ja42a1/2, see below), each author is coded 1 if selected or 0 if not selected for each twin.
Scores for this test are described on the derived variables page.
Item Variables
The item variables relating to the Maths and Reading Questionnaire, and to the Author Recognition test, as listed in the table below, were generated automatically by programs on the web server. Note that the dataset only includes data for completed tests (the Maths and Reading Questionnaire plus Author Recognition Test together count as a single web test for this purpose). If a twin started the test but left it unfinished, then the data for the test were not used.
Note that the Author Recognition Test was originally incorporated into the Maths and Reading Questionnaire, as the final item (item 16). The Author Recognition variables in the dataset have their own prefix (ja) rather than being named as items 16 of the questionnaire.
The questionnaire start and end dates and times, item answer and download times, and Author Recognition raw item scores, have not been retained in the dataset.
| Variables | Explanation | Values |
|---|---|---|
| jqstat1/2 | Questionnaire status: overall outcome | 0=not started, 1=started but not finished, 2=successfully completed |
| jastat1/2 | Author recognition test status: outcome of test | 0=not started, 2=successfully completed, 4=random responses |
| jqdata1/2 | Questionnaire data flag: are questionnaire data present in the dataset? | 0=no, 1=yes |
| jadata1/2 | Author recognition test data flag: are test data present in the dataset? | 0=no, 1=yes |
| jq01a1/2 through to jq15a1/2 | Questionnaire item response (see table of items below for details) | Numeric category codes 1-2, 1-3, 1-4 or 1-5 depending on item |
| ja01a1/2 through to ja42a1/2 | Item responses for sub-items (authors numbered 1-42) in the Author Recognition Test | 1=selected, 0=not selected |
| jqsess1/2 | Number of sessions (at the computer) used by the twin to complete the questionnaire/test. | Integer values of 1 or above |
| jqtime1/2 | Time taken to complete the questionnaire/test, in seconds | Integer values (number of seconds) |
| jqstdt1/2 | Start date of the questionnaire/test [not in dataset] | Date values |
| jqsttm1/2 | Start time of the questionnaire/test [not in dataset] | Time values |
| jqenddt1/2 | End date of the questionnaire/test [not in dataset] | Date values |
| jqendtm1/2 | End time of the questionnaire/test [not in dataset] | Time values |
| jq01at1/2 through to jq16at1/2 | Answer time: length of time (in seconds) taken by the twin to respond to this item [not in dataset] | Integer values (number of seconds) |
| jq01dt1/2 through to jq16dt1/2 | Download time: length of time (in seconds) between the end of the previous item and the start of this item; time needed to download files for this item [not in dataset] | Integer values (number of seconds) |
| ja01s1/2 through to ja42s1/2 | Item scores for sub-items (authors numbered 1-42) in the Author Recognition Test [not in dataset] | 1=correct (genuine author selected), 0=incorrect (dummy author selected) |
Questionnaire Items
The numbering of the items (1-15), shown in the table below, is the same as the numbering in item variables with names starting jqXX. The response number in the table heading (1-5) equates to the value coding used in the item response variables.
| item | question | response 1 | response 2 | response 3 | response 4 | response 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Is there a computer at home that you use? | Yes | No | - | - | - |
| 2 | Does your family get any newspapers or magazines regularly? | Yes | No | Don't know | - | - |
| 3 | On a school day, how many hours do you usually watch TV or videos/DVDs outside of school? | None | 1 hour or less | 2 or 3 hours | More than 3 hours | - |
| 4 | How many books are there in your home? | Few (0-10) | Enough to fill one shelf (11-25) | Enough to fill one bookcase (26-100) | Enough to fill several bookcases (more than 100) | - |
| 5 | How often do you talk about things you have studied in school with someone in your family? | Never or hardly ever | Once every week | About once a week | Two or three times a week | Every day |
| 6 | In school, how often do you do maths problems from text books? | Never or hardly ever | Once or twice a month | Once or twice a week | Almost every day | - |
| 7 | In school, how often do you solve maths problems with a partner or in small groups? | Never or hardly ever | Once or twice a month | Once or twice a week | Almost every day | - |
| 8 | In school, how often do you work with objects like rulers, counting blocks, or stopwatches? | Never or hardly ever | Once or twice a month | Once or twice a week | Almost every day | - |
| 9 | In school, how often do you talk with other students during class about how you solved a maths problem? | Never or hardly ever | Once or twice a month | Once or twice a week | Almost every day | - |
| 10 | How much time do you usually spend each day on maths homework? | None | 15 minutes | 30 minutes | 45 minutes or more | - |
| 11 | How often do you talk with your friends or family about something that you’ve read? | Never or hardly ever | Once or twice a month | Once or twice a week | Almost every day | - |
| 12 | How often do you read stories or poems for fun outside of school? | Never or hardly ever | Once or twice a month | Once or twice a week | Almost every day | - |
| 13 | How many pages a day do you read? | None | 1-5 | 6-10 | More than 10 | - |
| 14 | In class, how often do you have to talk about something that you have read? | Never or hardly ever | Once or twice a month | Once or twice a week | Almost every day | - |
| 15 | In class, how often do you write about something that you have read? | Never or hardly ever | Once or twice a month | Once or twice a week | Almost every day | - |
Author Recognition Items
The numbering of the author names (1-42), shown in the table below, is the same as the numbering in item variables with names starting jaXX.
| No. | Name | Author | Score if selected |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Rosen | genuine | 1 |
| 2 | Barbara Braxton | dummy | 0 |
| 3 | Bob Ackers | dummy | 0 |
| 4 | Anthony Horowitz | genuine | 1 |
| 5 | Myra Kersner | dummy | 0 |
| 6 | Helen Andrews | dummy | 0 |
| 7 | Kelly Mallows | dummy | 0 |
| 8 | Anne Fine | genuine | 1 |
| 9 | Leighton Jell | dummy | 0 |
| 10 | Michael Morpurgo | genuine | 1 |
| 11 | Dick-King Smith | genuine | 1 |
| 12 | Jacqueline Wilson | genuine | 1 |
| 13 | Jayne Chandler | dummy | 0 |
| 14 | Pamela Yeadon | dummy | 0 |
| 15 | Roald Dahl | genuine | 1 |
| 16 | Eric Lawson | dummy | 0 |
| 17 | John Klosterman | dummy | 0 |
| 18 | Lynne Reid Banks | genuine | 1 |
| 19 | Faye Coomber | dummy | 0 |
| 20 | Philip Pullman | genuine | 1 |
| 21 | Stephanie Pursglove | dummy | 0 |
| 22 | Roger McGough | genuine | 1 |
| 23 | Neil Smith | dummy | 0 |
| 24 | Terry Pratchett | genuine | 1 |
| 25 | Brian Jacques | genuine | 1 |
| 26 | J.K. Rowling | genuine | 1 |
| 27 | Tom Oxenbury | dummy | 0 |
| 28 | P.E. Davies | dummy | 0 |
| 29 | Marielle Van Veen | dummy | 0 |
| 30 | Robert Swindells | genuine | 1 |
| 31 | Terry Deary | genuine | 1 |
| 32 | Allan Ahlberg | genuine | 1 |
| 33 | Raymond Briggs | genuine | 1 |
| 34 | Rosalind Miller | dummy | 0 |
| 35 | C.I. James | dummy | 0 |
| 36 | Michelle Barker | dummy | 0 |
| 37 | Lemony Snicket | genuine | 1 |
| 38 | Gillian Cross | genuine | 1 |
| 39 | Celia Eccleshare | dummy | 0 |
| 40 | John Shelmadine | dummy | 0 |
| 41 | Penelope Lively | genuine | 1 |
| 42 | C.S. Lewis | genuine | 1 |